Learning Objectives

Performance Objective

Create a mini-qualitative research study using any of the five major designs in this chapter as a model. Emphasize content, meaning (not quantifiable variables), detail with fewer cases, and yourself as the data collection instrument.

Enabling Objectives

  1. Describe the complementary relationship between qualitative and quantitative research.
  2. Assess the fit between the worldview of qualitative researchers and their purpose to discover and understand individuals’ experiences, perceptions, and interactions and to make sense of derived meanings from participants’ thoughts, actions, and events.
  3. Debate the legitimacy of the goals more frequently associated with qualitative research.
  4. Illustrate the five major qualitative designs with examples from business research.
  5. Defend the mixed design as a pragmatic approach to solve complex research questions.
  6. Describe how the versatility of mixed designs allows them to be configured by considering the time order of the research and the dominance (priority) given to a quantitative or qualitative approach.